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The Case #ForTheWeb www.webfoundation.org
Lead Authors: Michael Cañares, Dhanaraj Thakur, José M. Alonso, Lauran Potter.
Contributing Authors: Juan Ortiz, Ana Brandusescu, Carlos Iglesias.
Suggested Citation: Web Foundation (2018). The Case #ForTheWeb. Washington DC: Web Foundation.
The Web Foundation was established in 2009 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.
Our mission is to establish the open web as a public good and a basic right.
Copyright, World Wide Web Foundation, CC BY 4.0
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Contents
Why should we fight #ForTheWeb? 4
Accessible and affordable for everyone 6
Accelerate the rate at which people are coming online 7
Drive down the cost of internet access so that people can afford to connect 8
Focus on connecting women 9
Our Goal 10
How We Get There 10
Safe and welcoming for everyone 11
Protect personal data online 11
Ensure automated decision-making is fair and unbiased 13
Combat online bullying, harassment and abuse 13
Ensure governments respect people’s rights online 14
Our Goal 15
How We Get There 15
Empowering for everyone 16
Work toward a diverse, multilingual web 16
Treat all online traffic equally 17
Put the power back in the hands of the people 18
Our Goal 19
How We Get There 19
Are you #ForTheWeb? 20
Contract for the Web - Core Principles 22
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The Case #ForTheWeb
Why should we fight
#ForTheWeb?
Open a newspaper, turn on the television or scroll through
your Twitter feed, and you’re likely to see a story about how
the World Wide Web is under threat. We’ve lost control of our
personal data and that data is being weaponised against us. The
power to access news and information from around the globe
is being manipulated by malicious actors. Online harassment
is rampant, and governments are increasingly censoring
information online — or shutting down the internet altogether.
A nd yet, as we approach nearly 30 years of the World Wide Web, we still have much
to celebrate. In the short time since its creation by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the web has
transformed our lives. It has allowed billions across the globe to connect, communicate
and create, and has leveraged the power of the internet to open previously closed
doors, allowing a global community to come together across borders and timezones.
As a young physicist at CERN, Sir Tim saw that valuable
information was being trapped within institutions
and recognised that the inability to freely share this
information was undermining its value. To counter TODAY THERE ARE ALMOST
2 BILLION
this, he created the World Wide Web as an open
platform for sharing and exchanging information,
open to anyone with a computer and an internet
connection. In the time since his invention, the free WEBSITES
flow of information across the globe has taken off in
THAT’S ONE WEBSITE FOR EVERY
ways he could not have imagined: Where there was
4 PEOPLE
just one website in 1990, there are nearly two billion
websites today — one website for every four people in
the world.1
Over this time period, we’ve seen the tremendous power of the web to change lives
and alter the course of history. The web has empowered people to uncover corruption
and bring it to light, to overthrow dictators, to make their voices heard and speak truth
to power. It allowed Prisca to take the exam she needed to get into medical school
in Nigeria, enabled Vinodha’s community in India to get subsidies for housing, and
empowered Stephen in the UK to clear his name of a crime he didn’t commit. It has
changed the way we communicate with each other, opening up new worlds and new
ways of thinking, even if we haven’t left home. It has even changed the way many of us
look for and find love.
1 Internet Live Stats. Total Number of Websites. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.
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Why should we fight #ForTheWeb?
Sir Tim gave the technology of the
web to the world for free, with the
“This is for understanding that only by making
it freely available would it reach
everyone” its potential as a truly worldwide
network. As he famously tweeted
at the 2012 London Olympics, “This
is for everyone”.
The reality today, however, is that the web is not “for everyone”. Over half the world’s
population is still not connected to the internet. Most of the unconnected are marginalised
populations in low- and middle-income countries, and most are women.
What’s more, the web we know and love — the one that has spurred amazing innovation,
advanced access to critical health and educational resources, and launched a million
cat memes — is under attack.
Billions of people experience the World Wide Web through a small handful of huge
companies. More than 90% of online searches go through Google, giving the company
tremendous power over what people see when searching online.2 More than half of
cloud services run on Amazon. Facebook boasts over 2.2 billion active monthly users,
and users of Facebook-owned WhatsApp top 1.5 billion. The responsibility that weighs
on the shoulders of these companies and others like them could hardly be greater.
At the same time, online decisions with serious real-life consequences are increasingly being
made by algorithms and machines that are replicating biases and reinforcing inequalities
found offline. Automated job recruitment tools have been revealed to use algorithms
that favor white, male candidates, while advertisements for loans with punitive rates of
interest have been shown predominately to low-income individuals. Identifying and fixing
these issues is made all the more challenging by the fact that the code underlying the
development and use of these tools is typically not open to public scrutiny.
The web is under threat — but the web we want
is not out of reach. It’s up to us to overcome
these threats and ensure the web remains an “If we spend a certain
open platform that is truly a force of good for
everyone. In this brief report, we outline some of
amount of time using the
the biggest issues facing the web today, as well internet we have to spend a
as a game plan for tackling them and advancing
our fight for the web. little proportion of that time
defending it, worrying about
it, looking out for it… Do me
a favour, fight for it for me.”
— Sir Tim Berners-Lee (2014)
2 StatCounter. Search Engine Market Share Worldwide. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.
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The Case #ForTheWeb
#ForTheWeb that is_
Accessible and
affordable for
everyone
For many of us, the World Wide Web is
a given. We go online every day to do
work, connect with friends, file our taxes,
catch up on our favourite series. For
some, the internet is so integrated into
the fabric of their daily life that they may
not even realise that they’re online.
T he growth of internet users over the past 30 years has
been nothing short of remarkable. Just 13 years ago, in
2005, not even 16% of the global population was online, and
the internet was predominately Western — nearly 50% of
Europeans were online at that time, compared to just 2% of
Africans. While we’ve made great strides in the years since —
with nearly 50% of the world estimated to be using the internet
today — we still have a long way to go.
Over half of the global population remains offline. Globally,
the digital divide — the division between those who are able
to access and use the internet and those who are not — falls
primarily along gender, economic, and geographic lines. Most of
the nearly 4 billion people offline today are women — research
has shown that women in poor, urban areas are up to 50% less
likely to be online than men in the same communities. Most
of those offline live in low- and middle-income countries. The
percentage of Europeans online today (80%) is nearly four
times that of Africans (22%).
These nearly 4 billion people are being further marginalised,
excluded from the online revolution. The consequences of
this exclusion are significant. To be offline today is to miss out
on economic opportunity, global public debate, social and
cultural exchange, basic government services, and democratic
empowerment. As our daily lives become increasingly digital,
these offline populations will continue to be pushed further to
6
Accessible and affordable for everyone
the margins of society, entrenching existing inequalities and snuffing out opportunities
for sustainable global development. Failing to connect these offline populations will result
in a loss for everyone: the longer these billions remain unconnected, the less we will all
benefit from their collective knowledge, talent and contributions to economic prosperity.
Accelerate the rate at which
people are coming online
While the number of people online continues to grow around the world, the rate at
which people are coming online is slowing. Between 2005 and 2014, new users were
coming online at about a rate of 12% annually; between 2015 and 2017 this rate of
growth dropped to around 6.5% (as illustrated in Figure 1 below).
Figure 1 - Annual % increase in the global number of people coming
online (2005-2017)
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Source: ITU World Telecommunications Database, 2018
In 2014, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimated that in 2017,
more people across the globe would be online than off — a projection the Alliance for
Affordable Internet (A4AI) later confirmed. Indeed, had growth trends remained the
same, over half the world would be connected to the internet already — around 556
million more people than are online today.3 Instead, we now expect to cross the 50%
threshold in May 2019 — two years later than anticipated. This “50/50 moment”, when
more than half the world are online, has proved stubbornly hard to reach.
3 Assuming an average annual growth of 11% between 2010 and 2017.
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Accessible and affordable for everyone
This decline in growth of people coming online has been most prominent across the
world’s least developed countries (LDCs). As Figure 2 shows, in 2014, the rate of new
users coming online in the LDCs was 41%; by 2017, this growth rate had dropped to
just 15%. This trend is particularly worrying, given that these countries are where most
of those offline today live. Urgent action is needed to reverse this trend, and enable
these last billions to access the internet.
Figure 2 - Annual % increase in number of people coming online
(2012-2017), by income level
50% High-Income
Middle-Income
40% World
Least Developed Countries
30%
20%
10%
0%
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Source: ITU World Telecommunications Database, 2018
In 2015, the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) estimated that achieving near-universal
connectivity in the world’s LDCs would take at least until the year 2042.4 An update of
this analysis, using the most recent available data, finds that this date has been pushed
back to 2043, suggesting that far from accelerating progress as needed, efforts to achieve
internet access for all have stalled.
Drive down the cost of internet access
so that people can afford to connect
The global community has agreed on the importance of ensuring access for all, rooted
in the understanding that the consequences of failing to do so are high. Why then are
we seeing a deceleration in how quickly people are connecting to the internet? One of
the major reasons is the high cost of getting online.
4 This was based on estimating trends in ITU data on internet penetration rates in LDCs included in the Alliance for Affordable Internet
2015-16 Affordability Report. We define universal connectivity where at least 90% of a country’s population is online.
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Accessible and affordable for everyone
Affordability remains one of the biggest barriers to internet access and use around the
world. This is particularly the case in low- and middle-income countries, where just 1GB
of mobile broadband data costs, can cost up to one-third of a user’s monthly income
— a price that is well out of reach for many, and especially for those living in poverty or
earning less than the national average income.
While prices are coming down on the whole, they aren’t coming down nearly fast
enough to create opportunities for affordable access for these populations. According
to A4AI’s 2018 Affordability Report, over 2 billion people live in countries where internet
access is not affordable. Just 40% of the low- and middle-income countries studied have
affordable internet access, where 1GB of mobile broadband data is available for 2% or
less of average monthly income.
Focus on connecting women
As the growth of people coming online slows, we are also seeing an increase in the
global digital gender gap (i.e., the difference in internet use rates between men and
women). The 2018 Inclusive Internet Index reports that, globally, men are 33% more
likely to have internet access than women.
Together with a lack of digital skills, affordability was found to be the biggest obstacle
to women coming online. The high cost of connectivity is exacerbated by the fact that
women, on average, earn less than men; indeed, of the 61 countries analysed in the A4AI
2018 Affordability Report, the digital gender gap is the largest where women’s average
incomes are the lowest.
< 7%
Closing the digital divide and enabling internet access
for all requires policies that specifically target the unique
barriers to access faced by women and other unconnected
populations. Unfortunately, most governments seem
to have missed the call to action, and progress toward OF COUNTRIES HAVE
gender-responsive policies in the ICT sector continues to GENDER-RESPONSIVE
disappoint. New research by A4AI and the Web Foundation BROADBAND
shows that less than 7% of countries have gender-responsive POLICIES IN PLACE
broadband policies in place.5
This means that just four of the 61 countries reviewed had developed gender-specific
targets for internet access and digital skills training, with adequate budget set aside to
implement the policy.
Closing the global digital divide will remain an impossible goal if we don’t take steps to
close the digital gender gap. So long as these divides exist, women and other offline
populations will be pushed further to the margins of society, deepening inequalities
and perpetuating disparities, rather than bridging them.
5 Out of 61 countries researched. The four countries are Costa Rica, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico.
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9Accessible and affordable for everyone
Our Goal
In order for the web to be truly “for everyone”, all people — no matter their gender, where they live,
or how much they earn — should have the opportunity to access and participate in the digital world.
Costs should not be a barrier to getting online, and women and other marginalised populations should
have the same opportunities as men to access and use the web.
How We Get There
To achieve this vision, we need to: ramp for those that might not be able to
afford their own connection. These solutions
•• Tackle the barriers preventing people
are particularly important in rural or poor
from coming online, with a particular
areas where opportunities to connect may
focus on the challenges faced by women
be limited and/or particularly expensive.
and other marginalized populations.
Research has shown that governments
Affordability remains one of the most
that invest in public access solutions see
significant, but solvable, obstacles to access.
higher rates of internet access — and
A first step is to be clear about what we
reduced broadband prices for all.
mean by affordable internet to ensure
that we are all working toward the same •• Design national broadband plans that
goal. Affordable internet is “1 for 2” — that set out clear targets for increasing
is, internet is affordable where 1GB of internet access for all, and especially
mobile broadband data is priced at 2% for women. Plans that outline clear goals
or less of average monthly income. for broadband development and time-bound
targets on the path to achieving those goals
•• Develop smart policy that fosters
are important for creating citizen buy-in
competition and drives prices down.
and for holding government and private
Even as amazing technologies emerge to
sector players to account. These plans
expand internet access, good policy remains
should particularly consider the challenges
the key towards unlocking sustainable
to access faced by women and other
opportunities for affordable access. Policy
offline populations in order to ensure that
and regulatory frameworks that encourage
resources are allocated for and invested
competition and eliminate monopolies in the
in expanding connectivity opportunities
ICT sector are critical to reducing internet
for these populations in particular.
costs for consumers. Likewise, policies that
incentivise the sharing of costs to build
out needed connectivity infrastructure
We are at a pivotal moment in the web’s history, and
and simplify processes for internet service
need to ensure we take steps to close the digital
providers looking to enter the market
divide and reverse the trend of slowing growth. We
can help to drive down costs for industry
know that policy has the power to impact this change.
players and, in turn, for consumers.
We now need policymakers to get on board and take
action to develop and implement the policies needed
•• Expand public internet access initiatives.
to accelerate opportunities for affordable internet
Whether it be free internet offered at a
access for all, and ensure that the next chapter of
library or school, or public WiFi hotspots in
the web’s history reflects a World Wide Web that is
places open to the public, publicly available
truly “for everyone”.
internet access is a critically important on-
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10The Case #ForTheWeb
#ForTheWeb that is_
Safe and welcoming
for everyone
The web is a platform built on trust. Its
power comes from the ability of anyone,
anywhere to create and share content,
ideas and information freely. However,
the inherent trust that characterised
the early days of the web — and is so
critical to its success — is receding.
R ecent research by the Pew Research Center shows a marked
decline in the proportion of people in the United States
who believe that the internet has been “mostly a good thing
for society”, compared to four years ago. In the UK, eight in ten
internet users have concerns about going online. Rebuilding
trust in and on the web requires that web users are free from
undue harm, protected from potential risks, and shielded from
individuals and institutions who would use people’s data without
permission to advance their own interests or satisfy ill motives.
Protect personal data online
People produce an enormous amount of data using the web
— around 2.5 billion GB of data per day. To put that into
perspective, that’s enough data to stream 1 billion movies.6
Most of this data is produced through people’s interactions on
the web. Whether you’re searching for information or writing an
email, online shopping or seeing what your friends are up to on
social media, you are leaving a trail of data crumbs as you go.
Many online companies have grown through a business model
rooted in their ability to sweep up these data crumbs and
use them for advertising purposes. As a result, the biggest
companies collect and store a tremendous amount of personal
data, including data on your location, behaviour patterns, social
preferences, political choices, and more.
6 Calculated at 2.5GB/high quality movie, per International Telecommunications Union (2015).
Measuring the Information Society Report. Pg. 123.
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11Safe and welcoming for everyone
In many cases, people have agreed to have their data collected and shared by signing
or agreeing to terms of service or end-user license agreements, frequently served in
tiny print and complicated legal language. In many cases, people agree to have their
data collected without fully reading or understanding the conditions to which they are
signing up. Other users agree to it simply because it was the default option presented
to them and they didn’t realise they had a choice in the matter, or because it doesn’t
seem like such a big deal to have your data collected in exchange for a free service. In
other cases, this data is collected without explicit or conscious user consent.
Though many people might understand broadly that their personal data is being
collected as they browse the web, they often don’t know or understand what data is
being collected or the extent of this collection. This is particularly concerning given
that data breaches are increasingly common. Since 2004, there have been almost 300
major data breaches reported, impacting more than 12 billion records, endangering a
huge volume of personal data and resulting in serious economic and social costs.7 It is
perhaps unsurprising then that research by UNCTAD shows, globally, there is growing
mistrust regarding how personal data is used and protected.
Despite these escalating threats and public concern,
governments have not made data protection a priority.
A Web Foundation review of policies in 65 countries
for this report found that over 1.5 billion people live in
a country with no comprehensive law on personal data
protection. Over half (34) of the countries surveyed
have no data protection policy in place, or have legal > 1.5
BILLION
protections that are so vague or piecemeal that they
are essentially meaningless.
PEOPLE
The good news is that recognition of the importance
of this issue seems to be on the rise, with a number of
countries considering draft versions of data protection
legislation and regulation.8 The landmark General Data LIVE IN A COUNTRY WITH
Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union NO COMPREHENSIVE LAW ON
offers a promising example, laying out a set of strict data PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION
protection rules for all companies operating in the EU,
no matter where they are based.
7 Breaches that compromised more than 30,000 records.
8 A framework to analyse the various provisions which are commonly presented in a data protection law is presented in Privacy
International (Sep 2018). The Keys to Data Protection: A guide for policy engagement on data protection.
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12Safe and welcoming for everyone
Ensure automated decision-
making is fair and unbiased
The vast troves of data we produce through our online interactions are collected and
processed with the aim of learning more about us and, in turn, optimising the services
we interact with on the web. To sort through this massive amount of data, companies
and governments are increasingly relying on automated processes. These processes
are driven by algorithms, which can, for example, help to classify content, tag and sort
pictures, or tailor advertisements to your unique interests. While online, we interact
with these algorithms and automated processes on a regular basis — they prioritise
the results we see when we search for something online, they organise the news we
see on Twitter and Facebook, and the photos we’re shown on Instagram.9
As the web continues to grow and web users continue to produce ever more data, the
use of these algorithmic-based processes will become more ubiquitous. The move to
automation has the power to produce tremendous positive change, increasing the
relevance and efficiency of products and services.
However, flawed algorithmic design can result in the use of automated processes harming
the populations they were intended to assist. Automated systems fed by poor quality
data or biased algorithms have resulted in women not being shown advertisements
for high-paying jobs, posts about a deadly earthquake triggering a celebratory confetti
animation, and important digital content being erased from the web at the hands of
tools designed to eliminate offensive content.
These mistakes can reinforce biases, deepen inequality, and make the web feel like a
less welcoming place.
Combat online bullying,
harassment and abuse
Harassment and abuse online remains a serious — and growing — problem. Spending
any time on social media or reading comments on blogs and news articles will reveal
that harmful speech is alive and well on the web. This toxic discourse is rampant, and
is often experienced most acutely by women, young people, and ethnic minorities.
Research by Amnesty International shows that one in five women in the UK has been
the victim of online harassment or abuse. Over 40% of the women surveyed expressed
concerns over their physical safety after experiencing online abuse, and 30% of women
surveyed reported that the online abuse threatened sexual or physical assault.
Likewise, youth seem to experience higher rates of online abuse. Related research
looking at young adults in four high-income countries shows that at least a quarter
of teenagers experience online harassment, disproportionately affecting women and
9 “Algorithmic approaches and systems allow for collecting, classifying, structuring, aggregating and analysing data in such a way
that unexpected insights, trends and predictions often become apparent.” Web Foundation (Jul 2017). Algorithmic Accountability.
Applying the concept to different country contexts.
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13Safe and welcoming for everyone
immigrants. Higher percentages are reported in research conducted
in other countries, such as Thailand (49%), Israel (82%), and Indonesia
(80%). Our own research has revealed that many teenagers across low-
and middle-income countries feel powerless in protecting themselves
from risks online.
Recent years have seen the emergence of a disturbing trend of hate
speech online driving physical violence offline. In nations including Sri
Lanka, Myanmar, India, and South Sudan ethnic minorities have become
the victims of physical violence fueled by misinformation spread online.
Ensure governments respect
people’s rights online
As governments struggle to put into place the policies needed to
protect user data and privacy online, a growing number of countries,
including the US, UK, North Korea, Turkey, Ethiopia, and Mexico, are
using the web to surveil their citizens – some in the name of national
security, others as part of intentional efforts to identify and quell
dissenting voices.
Examples of how governments have started to wrest control over the
online space has increased over the last five years. In China, for example,
internet users have been arrested and intimidated for criticising official
government pronouncements; in Uzbekistan, owners of internet cafes
are legally required to keep the browsing history records of cafe visitors
for at least three months.
Just the perception of being surveilled can lead to chilling effects in
speech, search, and personal sharing online, particularly for young
people and women. The web’s power is rooted in broad, open and active
participation from everyone, and increasingly ubiquitous government
surveillance undermines this power and turns it into a weapon for
those already in power.
The ability of the web to reach billions of people instantly has resulted
in governments increasingly using the web to manipulate public
opinion. An Oxford Internet Institute study found that 28 countries
have employed social media bots, online applications, or people to
shape public opinion in their favour. In the Philippines, for example, troll
armies are considered to have “debased political discourse and silenced
dissidents” through widespread sharing of fake news and amplification
of hate speech. In Egypt, under the guise of protecting the public against
“fake news”, laws are being used to persecute dissidents. Foreign
intelligence services and local groups have conducted orchestrated
efforts to spread misinformation and influence democratic processes
in countries including the US and the UK.
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14Safe and welcoming for everyone
Our Goal
As a collaborative platform designed and built by the people that use it, the web should be a space that
anyone can access, engage with, and benefit from safely and without fear. A safe and welcoming web
is one where everyone is empowered to control their digital identities and how their personal data is
used, where everyone can understand how automated decisions are affecting their lives and experience
online, and where everyone feels safe and able to speak freely.
How We Get There
To achieve this vision, we need to: •• Work to protect everyone’s safety online.
Governments and companies must enact
•• Equip every person online with the right policies and enforce regulations to protect the
and ability to effectively control their right to safety alongside the right to freedom
personal data. Users of the web must have of speech. This will require a number of steps,
the full control on how their data is used including: public discussions regarding the
through understandable terms of service, boundaries between free speech and abusive
prior and informed consent, data portability speech; retraining judges, lawyers and police
and freedom from bulk mass surveillance. to make use of existing legal instruments to
effectively protect people, especially women
•• Put into place comprehensive data
and other targeted groups, from online abuse;
protection laws and strong operational
training children in how to protect their data
frameworks. The collection and holding of
online, and in ways to protect themselves from
personal data should be done with adequate
online abuse, and; ensuring online service
safeguards in place, and users should be
providers offer easy-to-use mechanisms
accorded with sufficient oversight and legal
to report abuse in local languages.
recourse to redress privacy violations.
Everyone should be able to use the web freely, safely
•• Ensure automated decisions are
and without fear or discrimination. Web technologies
explainable and accountable to the
must support the best in humanity and challenge
people they are meant to serve.10 As
the worst, to ensure that the web remains a public
automation on the web grows, we must
good that puts people first.
work to ensure that both the web and these
systems continue to serve the people.
Those designing these automated systems
should make the values expressed in their
design clear to the public so that people can
understand why and how decisions are made.
10 See: Design Justice Network (2017). Design Justice Principles; and World Wide Web Foundation (2018). Artificial Intelligence: open questions about gender inclusion.
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15The Case #ForTheWeb
#ForTheWeb that is_
Empowering for
everyone
Building a web that is empowering
for all means ensuring that those
already online — and those coming
online for the first time — are able to
use the web in a meaningful way.
U sers must be able to meaningfully engage with the online
space for the web to realise its true potential.11 A web that
is empowering is one where all voices can speak out and have
a fair chance of being heard. To achieve this goal, we need
everyone to be able to access and create relevant content in
their own language, and make sure that control over access
and content distribution does not sit in the hands of just a few
powerful actors.
Work toward a diverse,
multilingual web
Today, the web is disproportionately skewed toward English-
speaking, Western populations. Over half (54%) of the top 10
million websites are in English, yet the majority (75%) of people
around the globe do not speak English, or are not native English
speakers. Though the past five years have seen an increase in
the production and availability of non-English content, growth
has been incredibly slow, and content in non-Indo-European
languages (e.g., indigenous languages) remains incredibly rare.
A different, but related, issue keeping a vast number of
people offline is the lack of online content relevant to diverse
populations — particularly for marginalised groups, including
differently-abled people, women, and indigenous populations.12
The reasons for this are many: web users across the board are
11 Pathways Commission (2018). Digital Lives: Creating Meaningful Connections for the Next 3
Billion.
12 For example, people with disabilities in the US are about three times as likely as those
without a disability to say they never go online. Anderson M., Perry A. (7 Apr 2017). Disabled
Americans are less likely to use technology, Pew Research Center; and the World Health
Organization (WHO) estimates that 80% of people with disabilities are living in developing
countries.
16Empowering for everyone
traditionally more active content consumers than producers13, and many users either lack
the digital skills needed to produce and share content, or are unable to access or afford
to access a stable connection and data sufficient to enable easy content production.
Making sure the web is welcoming to and empowering for diverse populations is about
more than making the web a stronger and better place. Failing to make room for these
groups online is to risk losing important and unique cultures, and different ways of seeing
the world. Creating the conditions for a diversity of cultures and languages to thrive
online will help preserve ideas, thoughts, perspectives, and languages that may otherwise
disappear forever.14 Research estimates that failure to develop and protect diversity
online could contribute to the digital extinction of up to 95% of minority languages.
Treat all online traffic equally
A neutral internet is at the heart of the web’s founding and its subsequent success and
popularity.15 Net neutrality ensures that all internet traffic, whether to stream a movie or
read the news of a big or small media outlet, is treated equally. It means that Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) cannot discriminate or charge different rates depending on the
user or the content or applications accessed.
This neutrality is critical to the web’s future as an open platform for creativity, and a
place where everyone has the opportunity to share their ideas..
Weak, limited or absent net neutrality protections risk creating a “pay-to-play” digital
space, where those that pay a premium to companies controlling online traffic are given
priority and an unfair advantage. This diminishes consumer power to choose products
and services, and threatens to limit freedom of speech, competition and innovation.
Without net neutrality, people would face a more limited choice of services and products
both in terms of internet access provision and content.
Unfortunately, net neutrality is at risk. While a few countries,
like India, have adopted strong rules to protect net neutrality,
these protections are eroding throughout much of the
world. In 2018, the US repealed rules that were in place
to ensure effective enforcement of net neutrality, putting
1.2
small businesses, companies looking to enter the market, BILLION
and consumers at the mercy of companies with longer INTERNET USERS LIVE
histories and bigger pockets. A new Web Foundation IN COUNTRIES WHERE
survey of net neutrality policies across 65 low- and NET NEUTRALITY IS
middle-income countries has found that an estimated NOT PROTECTED
1.2 billion people who use the internet live in countries with no
legal or regulatory framework in place to protect net neutrality.16
13 “In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and
1% of users account for almost all the action.” Nielsen, J. (9 Oct 2006). The 90-9-1 Rule for Participation Inequality in Social Media and
Online Communities.
14 The Internet Archive has been building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form since 1996,
providing free access to researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public.
15 As Sir Tim famously said: “When I invented the web, I didn’t have to ask [...] for permission to use the internet.” Solon, O. (15 Nov
2017). Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the web: 'The system is failing', The Guardian; and “if we lose net neutrality, we lose the
internet as we know it”.
16 Based on a Web Foundation review of policies in 65 countries, completed between June and August 2018; 44 of the 65 countries
studied did not, at the time of study, have net neutrality protections in place.
www.webfoundation.org
17Empowering for everyone
Put the power back in the
hands of the people
While the web was created to be a decentralised platform where
everyone can contribute and no single creator has a built-in advantage
over the other, web activity has become dominated by a shrinking
number of powerful companies that are able to wield significant
influence over what we see online — and what we don’t. The growing
imbalance between individuals and these powerful actors threatens
to limit and undermine the power of the free and open web.
Ten years ago, like today, content was distributed across millions of
personal blogs. Whereas back then, users would find this content
through searches or links on other blogs; today, a small group of
companies are estimated to have influence over more than 70% of
online traffic, meaning that many only know the web delivered to them
as defined by those large platforms.17 These companies are increasingly
empowered to act like information brokers, determining what content
is prioritised and seen at the top of search results or in social media
feeds. Today, a blogger’s ability to optimise content for these companies
determines their success, and whether or not we see their blog. These
narrow paths to success limit the types of content we see online, and
threaten to quell ideas and creative exchange online.
17 With video streaming having a 58% traffic share already. Sandvine (Oct 2018). The Global Internet
Phenomena Report.
www.webfoundation.org
18Empowering for everyone
Our Goal
The web was designed to open and share information and experiences, and is its most powerful when
it is a source of valuable information, a means of political participation, a facility for accessing public
services, and an enabler of well-being for all, irrespective of race, gender, location, physical ability, or
beliefs. For the web to realise this potential, it must be shaped by its billions of individual users, and not
by the vested interests or limited experiences of a select few. The web’s ability to empower people lies
with the ability of people to access, understand, and create relevant content freely and without undue
interference from any company, platform, or government.
How We Get There
To achieve this vision, we need to: •• Work toward a level playing field by
ensuring that power and control on the
•• Incentivise the production of diverse, web is distributed across its billions of
multilingual content. We must remove users. As the web has grown, so too have a
barriers to internet access and use, handful of companies, which have managed to
and facilitate diverse — and particularly amass disproportionate power over our online
underrepresented — communities to create experience. This market concentration has led
the content needed to make the web a to almost all internet traffic being controlled
useful and engaging space and facilitate by a small number of central players. It is
communication and interaction within various crucial we work to understand the impact
conditions and environments — whatever the of this concentration of power online, and
devices, software, language, location, script, engage in ways to reverse the trend towards
culture or ability. Governments should create control by a small number of players.
mechanisms to encourage relevant content
in local languages, and aim to support a •• Keep the web global. Efforts to comply
diverse and inclusive cultural online space. with policies enacted in various jurisdictions
often undermine the web’s ability to remain
•• Prioritise digital skills training and truly global. We need to make considerable
education so people can become active progress in global multi-stakeholder forums, in
digital creators. We need to make sure order to ensure that internet traffic flows freely
that everyone can access the tools and skills across national borders, that national and
they need to create content and use the international institutions coordinate effectively
web in a meaningful way. This is especially to protect people’s online rights, and that the
important for those whose voices are value created by the web is distributed fairly
typically silenced online, such as women, and people everywhere enjoy these benefits.
LGBT+, and ethnic minority groups.
The web should allow individuals, communities and
•• Protect net neutrality. Governments humanity as a whole to flourish. It is still young and
should develop and implement enforceable has yet much to deliver. But we need to ensure that
rules to prevent blocking, throttling we work together to put into place the policies and
and paid prioritisation, and ensure that designs needed to keep it open and empowering
all traffic online is treated equally. for everyone. The more people the web serves,
the stronger the community of people willing to
fight for it.
www.webfoundation.org
19Are you_
#ForTheWeb?
Making sure the web is accessible, affordable, safe, welcoming
and empowering for everyone is an ambitious task. It’s a
mission that will impact each and every one of us, now
and in the future, in some way or another. We know that
we can’t take on this challenge alone, and we know that
no single organisation, government or person can do it by
themselves either. This mission needs all of us — from web
users to CEOs to world leaders — to take responsibility for
the change we can make, and work together to achieve it.
That’s where the ‘Contract for the
Web’ comes in, and we need your
help to build it.
www.webfoundation.org
20Are you #ForTheWeb?
W e’ve spent months working with a wide range of partners
to develop a set of guiding principles which describe
a web that is for everyone and is a public good. Between
November 2018 and May 2019 we are asking governments,
companies and citizens to join us in building these into a full
and detailed Contract for the Web.
The Contract will be a roadmap for the future of the web. It
will lay out the responsibilities of governments, companies and
citizens, and will create a set of norms to guide the development
of digital policies and new technologies. By getting involved in
the process to shape this, these three groups will contribute
to building a web that works for all of us.
But to get there, we need you. We need voices from all around
the world, all sectors, and all experiences to help us shape the
web, and to show policymakers at every level what’s possible,
what we need to do, and why it matters.
At the Web Foundation, we hope you will support the principles,
join the process and take to social media to tell everyone why
you’re #ForTheWeb. Share your story on how the web has
changed your life and what you hope for its future.
You know what the web
can do for you. It’s time to
ask what you’re going to
do #ForTheWeb.
Support the principles and join the process at
fortheweb.webfoundation.org
www.webfoundation.org
21Are you #ForTheWeb?
Contract for the Web - Core Principles
The web was designed to bring people together and make knowledge freely available. Everyone
has a role to play to ensure the web serves humanity. Toward that end, we have developed
a set of core principles to build a “Contract for the Web”. We are encouraging governments,
companies and citizens around the world to commit to these principles, and to help protect
the open web as a public good and a basic right for everyone.
Governments will: Companies will: Citizens will:
Ensure everyone can Make the internet Be creators and
connect to the internet affordable and collaborators
So that anyone, no matter who accessible to everyone on the web
they are or where they live, can So that no one is So the web has rich and
participate actively online. excluded from using relevant content for everyone.
and shaping the web.
Keep all of the Build strong
internet available, Respect consumers’ communities that
all of the time privacy and respect civil discourse
So that no one is denied their personal data and human dignity
right to full internet access. So people are in control So that everyone feels safe
of their lives online. and welcome online.
Respect people’s
fundamental right Develop technologies Fight for the web
to privacy that support the best So the web remains open
So everyone can use the in humanity and and a global public resource
internet freely, safely challenge the worst for people everywhere,
and without fear. So the web really is a public now and in the future.
good that puts people first.
We commit to uphold these principles and to engage in a deliberative process to build a
full Contract for the Web, which will set out the roles and responsibilities of governments,
companies and citizens. The challenges facing the web today are daunting and affect us
in all our lives, not just when we are online. But if we work together and each of us takes
responsibility for our actions, we can protect a web that truly is for everyone.
www.webfoundation.org
22www.webfoundation.org
23World Wide Web Foundation 1110 Vermont Ave NW, Suite 500 Washington, DC 20005, USA www.webfoundation.org Twitter: @webfoundation
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